In an effort to meet the growing demand of electricity for the railways, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed to set up another 1,000 mw power plant in association with the National Thermal Power Corporation at Adra in Purulia district of West Bengal. The railways currently use some 12 billion units of electricity a year and its consumption is growing at an average 5% every year.

“The project, which will help us avail traction supply at economical tariff, is expected to save considerable cost of electricity to the Railways. This project is of great importance as it would be located in an under developed tribal area and will help in providing employment and bringing the tribal people into the mainstream,” Banerjee said.

Adra is the headquarters of the South Eastern Railway division of the same name. It is one of the three most important coal loading divisions, the other two being Bilaspur and Chakradharpur which supply coal to power plants across India.

The railways pays an average of Rs 4.29 a unit to run locomotives and Rs 4.37 a unit for other purposes the average cost of generation at NTPC was Rs 2.11 per unit in the fiscal year ended on 31 March.

NTPC has a power generation capacity of 30,144 mw, which it plans to ramp up to 50,000 mw by 2012 The company turned in a net profit of Rs 7,827.40 crore on revenue of Rs 42,182.40 crore in 2008-09.

It was in 2007 that the railway ministry, under the leadership of Lalu Prasad had signed a joint venture agreement with NTPC for setting up Bhartiya Rail Bijlee Company at Nabinagar in Bihar to generate 1,000 mw of electricity. The project, which is expected to go operational by 2011, is estimated to cost about Rs 5,352 crore.

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